Kraken exchange has bought licensed crypto broker TradeStation Crypto

What’s new? US crypto exchange Kraken has bought the digital assets division of broker TradeStation. The deal, the amount of which was not disclosed, will allow Kraken to grow its business in the United States, as TradeStation Crypto holds a number of required licenses. According to the exchange, it will also enable the launch of new products for local traders.

Material by CoinDesk

What else is known? Over the past few years, Florida-based TradeStation Crypto has obtained money transmission and other types of regulatory licenses in most US states. Despite this, the crypto brokerage company has faced pressure from the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

In February this year, the regulator accused TradeStation Crypto of offering unregistered lending services. The service allowed customers to lend their cryptocurrencies at interest from August 2020 through June 2022. To settle the claims, the company agreed to pay a $1,5 million fine to a federal commission, with a similar amount also paid to regulators in 26 states.

On February 22, the crypto broker’s parent company stopped selling cryptocurrency-related products and services.

Kraken also faced SEC claims in February 2023. The company was forced to close the staking service and pay a $30 million fine. However, in November last year, the exchange again received a lawsuit from the SEC. This time, officials accused the exchange of operating without registration, unregistered offerings of securities, and commingling customer funds with its own assets.

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In 2022, leading US crypto firms launched an AML compliance platform that allowed them to share encrypted customer and transaction information to identify suspicious transactions. The consortium included Kraken and Tradestation, among others.

Earlier this year, Kraken developed a non-custodial, open-source crypto wallet with support for Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, Optimism, Base, Arbitrum, Polygon, and Dogecoin networks, and launchedan institutional exchange.

Last year, Kraken bought Dutch crypto broker BCM and also obtained regulatory licenses from Italy, Spain, and Ireland as part of its strategy to grow its business in Europe. In addition, it announced the launch of exchange-traded fund (ETF) unit trading in the UK and the US.